Quite Adept
by Hawki
Summary: Oneshot: Zeratul could admire Talis's vigor. He just hoped that same vigor didn't get her killed.


_A/N_

 _So, yeah, another one of_ those _oneshots again, where I take the gag lines of a unit/hero and convert them into narrative form. In this case, the adept._

* * *

 **Quite Adept**

"I'm here. I'm there. I'm…still here."

Zeratul chuckled – he couldn't pretend to know the intricacies of psionic transfer. But he understood the joke. Young Nerazim, less than twenty cycles old, would play games, pretending to be zooming around the dunes of Shakuras. He could only assume that Khalai children did the same as well. So watching Talis carry out the ability, and not follow up with a second attempt as her psionic energy recharged, was something that his old bones found gratifying.

"A little game," the praetor said, as if reading his mind, and quite possibly doing so. "With the right training, anyone can be in two places at once. As long as their mind is open." She chuckled. "Oh, and a psionic amplifier helps too."

"You jest," Zeratul said.

"Of course. In such times, I think it serves us well to indulge in what levity the universe allows."

"Such times," Zeratul mused. "As we head to battle with our brothers-"

"Heretics," Talis interrupted. "The Tal'darim have enslaved our brothers, delivered them to lesser species, and let those species create perversions of the natural order." Her eyes flared an icy white. "I will aid you in your quest, Prelate. But when battling such fallen ones, do not expect me to show quarter."

"You called my people heretics once," the prelate mused. "Would you have shown quarter had you been asked to do battle with us as well?"

Talis had no answer.

The Nerazim turned his gaze to the Void. The darkness gazed back at him. He'd noticed Talis's unease as she'd boarded the _Void Seeker_ rather than her own ship. The darkness surrounded her, she had said. The Khalai preferred the light of stars, and even the eerie glow of warp space. Not this entropy.

"How do you bear this?" Talis asked.

Zeratul looked at her.

"This," she said, gesturing to the Void. "How can you stand it?"

"The darkness has been my people's ally before you were born," he said. "Before _I_ was born as well. When one lives in darkness, when one utilizes it as a shield, one sees it as an ally."

"Fine words," Talis mused. She folded her arms, still staring through the star relic's helm. "The sooner we reach Atrias the better. At least there we can fight under the light of its sun."

"You may wish otherwise once the battle has begun."

"Battle?" Talis laughed. "I am Templar, Zeratul. Battle is who I am." She glanced at him. "I suspect it is part of who you are as well."

Zeratul remained silent. Battle. He had known much of it. Before Char, after Duran, and now…he remembered the vision Tassadar had given him. Of a last battle. A battle larger than any he had ever seen. When he had seen his own self been torn apart as his people were extinguished. If battle defined the Firstborn, he wanted no part of it.

And yet he saw no other means of survival. And few means of averting the same outcome.

"How much longer?"

Zeratul glanced at Talis, now pacing around the bridge like a child. As if she were more than six centuries his junior.

"I said, how much longer?"

"I cannot say."

"Guess."

"My guess would be based on nothing more than-"

"Oh, Khas preserve me."

Talis resumed pacing. In older days, Zeratul would have admired her vigour. Now…

"Some Templar see themselves as a shield," Zeratul said. Talis looked at him. "Stalwart and unbreakable, defenders of truth."

"And others as a weapon, powerful and precise," Talis said. "Yes, Prelate, I know the writings of Zoranis. What of them?"

"That it may be best to emulate the shield rather than the sword for now."

"Why not both?" she asked. Her eyes flashed. "I shall aid you Zeratul. I'll reach this planet, kill any heretic who gets in my way, and then, finally, return to Shakuras. To the Golden Armada. So that Aiur may be reclaimed."

Zeratul remained silent – he'd heard of the armada. Among Talis's warband, he'd even learnt of its intent – reclaim the protoss homeworld. Unify the sects. Show the universe that the light of the Firstborn still shone fierce. And, most practically, take the opportunity now that Kerrigan had taken her swarms away from the sector.

"And when Aiur is reclaimed," Zeratul murmured. "What then?"

"Then?" Talis laughed. "Then I'll kill any zerg who dares remain on my planet."

"And then?"

"And then…" She trailed off. "Well, time will tell. I have seen more than two centuries my friend, I intend to see many more. My life as a Templar will not come to an end just because our homeworld is in our hands once more."

Zeratul walked over and placed a hand on her comrade's shoulder. "Then ensure those centuries still await you. And take care in the battle to come."

"Of course, Prelate," she said. "You expect otherwise?"

He did.

 _Oh_.

And nor was he surprised to have his mind read.


End file.
